YesOn Sunday they had good intentions against the Augsburg Panthers. The final siren had just sounded when a large sign was placed on the ice with which the team had to thank the fans after the last home game of the season. At the same time, the announcer addressed some warm words to the public, who despite the sporting misery remained faithful to their AEV. The last seven home games in the relegation fight in Germany ice Hockey League (DEL) were all sold out.
AEV fans were also present away from home: on Friday they filled the guest block in Bremerhaven, some 800 kilometers away. But there was nothing to laugh about either there or two days later at home against Düsseldorfer EG.
After the 1:3 defeat it became clear: Augsburg will not leave the last place and will be relegated to DEL2. Then the affection ended. When the announcer in the room began his speech, he could hardly be understood, the concert of whistles was very loud, followed by angry chants against the trainer and manager Christof Kreutzer and the main shareholder Lothar Sigl.
“This is really embarrassing”
Everyone agrees that Augsburg is not in last place by chance: only 17 wins in 51 games, most recently there were seven defeats in a row, often with a difference of several goals. “I am very sorry for our fans. They come every week and fill the cabin. We played absolute shit together. “It's really embarrassing,” striker Luca Tosto told Magentasport after the 4-0 defeat in Bremerhaven.
Two days later, Coach Kreutzer expressed himself in the same way: “I can understand the fans blowing their whistles. I think we performed pretty well for most of the season. But in the end we didn't do it well.” However, it is unclear what will happen to one of Germany's oldest ice sports clubs (founded in 1887).
Because although Augsburg will definitely be in the relegation zone after Friday's last game in Munich, it is not certain that they will play in DEL2 next season. There is only a relegated team if there is also a promoted team. And this only happens if a club that meets the infrastructure requirements of the first league and has deposited around 800,000 euros becomes DEL2 champion.
Before the current season, only four clubs in the second division did so: Kassel, Krefeld, Dresden and Bietigheim. But the last two missed out on the play-offs and are already out of the race. So only Kassel and Krefeld can ascend. And while it remains unclear who will win the second division title at the end of April, Augsburg find themselves in limbo.
“Not thought of”
This was already the case last season. AEV was also relegated in 2023, but then Ravensburg won the DEL2 championship, a team without the right to promotion. so i stayed Augsburg but in the first league. However, this only became clear a few weeks after the end of the season: the squad was already largely planned for the second division and most of the first division caliber players were no longer on the market.
This is also the reason why the Panthers finished in last place again. Thus, Christof Kreutzer reported extenuating circumstances during the season evaluation. “Maybe at the end of the day the promotion and relegation hasn't been well thought out,” he said on Sunday.
Many in the industry see it that way. But what they fear most is that a Second Division champion will give up promotion because they cannot afford to be promoted to the First Division. Or worse still: that a club surpasses itself and has to go bankrupt. This happened again and again in the early wild years of DEL. Starting with the 2006/07 season, promotions and relegations were eliminated so that clubs could plan for the long term.
But at some point the pressure from the association, the second division clubs and the fans became too great, and from 2022 it was possible to be promoted and relegated again. But everything has to be economically viable, which is why not all teachers can go up. In Augsburg they now hope that this will happen again. This wouldn't be good for their roster planning for next season, but at least they would still be playing in the DEL.